Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Things I Have Accomplished

This month:

1. I introduced Sergio to the move "The Last Unicorn." Massive geek-out was achieved.

2. I read two books:
a.) Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger. What a boring, annoying waste of time. Two novellas about a family that is SO smart, SO gifted, and SO rich that being around the ordinary masses is such a TREMENDOUS BURDEN that they have nervous breakdowns in between semesters at their exclusive colleges. Seriously, there is no plot. All they do is sit around and exchange ten-paragraph rants about who has less capacity to cope in a world where everyone except them is all "phony". About twelve pages from the end, I cared too little about these irritating characters to stick with them and ended up going on SparkNotes to see how the story ends. (It doesn't, really; they pretty much just stop talking.) I'm sorry, Salinger fans. I don't hate on Salinger in general and actually liked Catcher in the Rye; I just didn't understand what he was trying to get across here other than extremely smart kids grow up into extremely neurotic adults. (Also, I didn't need the size, weight, and physical description of every goddamn item in the medicine cabinet.)
b.) Animal Farm by George Orwell. Aw, how cute! All the animals decided to band together and run the farm themselves! Of course it will be the best farm ever, because who knows better how to run a farm than the animals themselves? Except...oh, shit, did someone just get shot with a gun? And don't the self-appointed leaders seem awfully corrupt? And - holy fucking shit, did those dogs just murder a half dozen animals in cold blood?! I don't like this story anymore, Mommy! (But seriously, I did. The pace was snappy, the good characters were sympathetic, the bad characters were really goddamn evil, and the end made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.)

3. I designed two posters for a former classmate who has his own magic show. Here's one, because I can't find the file for the other.

*EDIT*: I found the second one. It was hiding in a different folder.

(By the way, if you're in WI you should see his show. I've heard it's good. :)

4.) I am currently working on another commission, a series of illustrations to accompany a story about animals building their houses. Here is one of a spider in her web.